Hey guys,
how are you? Hope you’re all well. So, this is my review on the book “The
Geography Club” by Brent Hartinger.
Even before I finished reading this book, I knew the ultimate word I’d use to
describe it. WITTY! Other applicable adjectives include smart, funny and
sarcastic. I officially began reading this book just before spring break, and
the fact that this book was about a 60 paged PDF document that I had on my
kindle, means that it could be read by anyone who wished to read it,
within a day or night. But of course, that rarely happens with me, so it took
me about three days to read, mainly because of my terrible reading habits
(which include reading a paragraph to a page three to four times, juicing out
every bit of funny element out of it) and the fact that I’m always busy.
The genre of this book is definitely YA (young adult) and my judgement in this
manner is not just because the book takes place in mostly a high school setting
with teenagers! (Screaming YA), but mostly because of the writing style, which
incidentally, had a few very mature high points.
So here we go! This book is about how the main character Russell Middlebrook
struggles and subsequently finds his sexuality but is then trapped in a high
school where he thinks, there’s no one else to whom he can relate. Eventually,
he finds a very unlikely character to whom he can relate in the form of high
school star jock Kevin Land. And from here the entire story materializes into
finding a few other characters similar to himself whom he knew and didn’t
suspect to be who they really were. (How very much a cliché of society) They,
subsequently forms what is known to them as the ‘Geography club’ (obviously how
the book got its name) which functions, somewhat as a support group for young
teens of their orientation. The line of deduction they used to come up with the
name of this club is hilarious (and it’s one of those episodes where I reread
the paragraph over and over just to laugh over and over!)
Now, if it hasn’t become obvious to you by now, the screaming undertones of
this book, then the entire book is lost on you. The theme of the book is
wrapped up in LGBT drama. And the undertones are gay,
(lesbian/homosexual/bisexual) based on this alone, many of you may refrain from
reading this book, and that’s okay. Just know that you’ll be missing out on a
great read.
The book’s setting, as I mentioned, takes place in a high school setting, and
therefore many of the events which take place in the book, surrounds the Robert
L. Goodkind High School (though not all take place here). As such the book does
include all the teenage drama you’d expect it to include, teenage ostracism,
idle adolescent gossip, etc, etc. but through it all, the premise remained the
same.
Now for the characters. I absolutely have to note, that at numerous times
during the book I hated the main character (who also narrates the book) Russell
Middlebrook, for his behaviour, but interestingly he happens to also be my
favourite character as well, mainly because of his repentant and penitent
behaviour after those intervals of less than great behaviour. Most of the
smarts, wittiness and sarcasm that I described earlier were due in part by him.
Another character I liked was Brian Bund, whose importance, at least in my
estimation, isn’t realized (much) until the end of the story. His heroic
actions leading up to the end of the book played a huge role in my liking his
character a lot, I found him to be a very relatable character for me and many
other misunderstood individuals in the high school system. If you have read
this book, or intend on reading it and subsequently do, then my decision of
Kevin Land as least liked character should come as no surprise to you. In very
similar ways, he was like Russell during his unforgivable moments, except
Russell was much less menacing and eventually repentant, Kevin wasn’t. Other
important characters include, Min a Chinese-American friend of Russell’s who
happens to be like him, Gunnar, bestfriend of Russell and desperate to acquire
a girlfriend, to the extent of the interesting things he does to achieve this.
Among various others. The dialogues between the characters are very natural,
inclusive of a lot of ‘likes’ and ‘whatever’s and some amount of cursing, but
nothing that can’t be handled by the book’s target demographic. Everything
you’d expect from a typical high school, and true to form, just like a typical
high school, where no Romeo and Juliet saga last for very long, it happens here
too. Do not expect a Romeo and Juliet story!
All in all, the book had a very strong and interesting premise, it held little weaknesses
for me, my only problem being that the author could have stretched the book a
little longer, and keep me reading for a few more days or nights (preferably
nights, as this was on my kindle and I prefer to read on it, had it been in
hard copy though, it would require reading with lights on in the wicked hours
of the night and this usually attracts attention to my room from my parents and
siblings and after the third person reaches my room, I usually get annoyed, so
I just go to bed). This book has been very insightful and is most definitely
provocative. Taking into account all this teenage greatness, I give The
Geography Club 4 and a half stars out of 5.
Remember, guys, these are just my opinions on the book, yours may differ
greatly or by reading it, you could find that we come to the same conclusions,
either way, I implore you to have a go at it and tell me what you think by
commenting on my blog about it! I’m always excited to have discussions about
the books I’ve read. =)
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